United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Paul Newton (PN) at last Thursday morning's press conference for the local media, Abbott first talking about his return from holiday ten days or so before the start of pre-season training :
GA
I needed a break, I sort of had a break, you still work, I spoke to a few managers while I was out there actually. You still work but it is a different level and you need that to charge the batteries up because the industry gets tougher and tougher. Next season for everybody in the game, managment, and coaching and players and fans it will be another tough one, that is for the 92 league clubs and we are in that, but we are ready.
PN
It is true what they say, I mean as a manager you can't really properly switch off for any length of time can you?
GA
Not at all, because you have got people ringing you, you have people that need to move players and make you aware of players. Even the book I read, I actually read another manager's book, (Sir) Bobby Robson's book while I was there so that was an unbelievable read and the problems are exactly the same, even the level that Bobby played and managed at a lot of the problems are exactly the same but just a little bit more signficant because of the size of the clubs he was at.
But, you never switch off, I don't switch off and I don't enjoy switching off from football, because if you do I think you are opening a little hole for people to come in and take things off you. So, you try to holiday but you try to keep your mind on the ball, and I had Andy Hall our media officer ringing me every day with events that had moved in our league because I needed to be up to speed should I have escaped anything while I was over there.
But, a lot of other things were planned, I mean to be fair I can't believe how quick this morning has gone. I have been in since about nine o'clock and just realised I was late for you by 20 minutes because there is that much to do and that many things to sort out. But, I did some planning, I have done a recruitment plan for Dennis (Booth) and the recruitment team, I have done the training plan for the players and Kav (Graham Kavanagh) and the coaching staff.
I did all this while I was away and my missus goes mad at me thinking why am I doing this, but it is a great time to plan and plot when you have got peace and quiet. So, all that work I have done we are sort of putting into people's hands today, so they have got it, they have got a copy, they can read it and digest it and be ready to attack next year.
PN
We haven't spoken since you brought Danny Cadamarteri in, what do you think Danny is going to be able to bring to your team next season?
GA
Well, you will love him you lot, you will love him. He is a really bubbly character and he works tremendously hard, he has got a real passion for the game. He will work well with the likes of Lee (Miller) and Rory (Loy) and J-P (Jon-Paul McGovern) and he will complement them well. He will fit into the dressing room perfectly because of the character he is and I think personally, and I have told Danny this, I have known Danny a lot of years, he is from my neck of the woods and I have come across him a lot of times at different functions and different games and different things.
I think Danny's career has not been as good as it should have been and I think he has got a real chance now, and I have just read an article that Ian Harte put about his time here and other people have come and resurrected their career or developed a career or started a career. I think Danny has got to use us to really find some completion to the success that he should have had through his career, because he started off as a whirlwind at Everton at 18 I think, played in the first team, might have been younger than that, I can't remember the exact age he was.
But, he hit the scene like a ton of bricks and he hasn't done as much as his ability would suggest. So, there is a little bit of a competition with Danny himself to find a completion to his career if this is going to be it, that he has some success and fulfils some of that potential that he has obviously got.
PN
A bit of speculation as to whether Danny was brought in as a replacement for Francois (Zoko) or possibly a replacement for Craig (Curran), but from what you are saying you seem to suggest he is maybe a Craig Curran replacement in that respect?
GA
I would never sort of say it is that one for that one. The players go, players go, they are either released or they move on for other reasons. What you have got to do is just build your squad that can play and suit the style that you want to play, that we want to play. That is what I am doing, I am just filling the gaps and the voids, I am not really saying he is going to come in straight for him and he is going to come in straight for him.
Obviously, if you lose a centre-half you have got to get a centre-half, and we lost Stephen (O'Halloran), we released Stephen, Lubo (Lubomir Michalik) has turned it down so it is common sense we needed another centre-half. The other area of the pitch it is just people that fit into the style and formations that you would like to play, and Danny is one that any forward line we would like to play, whether we play 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or a diamond or anything like that, he could fit into all of those.
So, he becomes a good player for us and that is the reason we have gone after. But, I wouldn't say he is actually a replacement for Craig or for Francois, or another one that we might try to bring in would be a replacement. I am just trying to bring in players to give me the depth of squad and the variety that I am looking for so I can play different ways and different formations at different times throughout the season.
PN
Already we have seen Rory Loy back at the club doing some running this week which is a great sign?
GA
Well, he wasn't running very fast though was he? I have just had him in and I said I could run across the car-park quicker than you. He challenged me to a race. I declined. But, no he is great, listen, he has got a big smile on his face, he is at the end of his rehabilitation work near enough. He is hopeful he can join in everything, but until he goes in full pelt with the boys it is one of those. But, Dolly (Neil Dalton) I think is pretty confident, he (Loy) is absolutely buoyant about coming back so it is like a new signing.
That would be him, that would be Lee, that would be Chris Chantler, so already we are three players better off than we were at the end of the season. So, that is fantastic news and I just sat with him for five minutes because he is in and he is doing all his work, and it is hard work. He has been in most of the summer building his leg up and doing his work but hopefully he will get his rewards and he will be round the team come the start of the season and he will be back scoring goals and getting the fans singing his name again.
PN
And any news on pre-season trialists?
GA
We have decided not to bring anybody in we don't think has got a serious chance of coming in. There are some good sources they have come from but obviously they are in areas where they are without a club for a reason. Some are younger, some have been at clubs that have lost their way a bit, and we will look at them on Thursday and Friday and the full week and probably get them involved in the Kendal game like we did last year with a view to deciding who we keep. If they are still there in the third week, the start of the third week, then it means that we have been really, really impressed.
We have to as a club work prudently in the market, I could have signed quite a few players already if I had wanted to, but they are not the right players. So, I am waiting to strike for the right players at the right time. You will get to the 5th of July and some big players won't have got clubs and that is when it really gets that people are thinking that they should be having a club by now and that they should be training by now with a club. There will be some surprise names thrown around that haven't got clubs that you think well he is a good player, he should have a club. So, that is the way it is, we are trying to leave a little bit of space and room available and we know we need to do a little bit more before we start.
PN
I am going to finish this interview on a depressing note, England, I know you will have been watching their games while you have been away. What you do feel is the problem there? How do they go about addressing it to make sure they do improve in the years to come?
GA
I think we have finally got to change our system, we get no control of the game, we have no absolute possession of the football. We never look in control when winning games and when we are winning games we always look like conceding goals because we give the ball away that much. I think the time has come where our system, our 4-4-2 system, there has got to be some variety and some change. We have got to add an extra midfield player there and make sure we get the ball and keep the ball.
Spain just keep the ball better than anybody else and I have had this argument before that it takes three passes to score a goal and you get up there quickly and you get it in the back of the net and stuff like that. But, there is an argument that suggests that if you have got more territorial possession and possession of the ball more than the opposition then you are surely going to win more games.
We seem to give possession away of the ball far too easy and never look like controlling and winning games. So, I think we have got to have a real big look at the whole situation and go from there. We could go into massive political debate on where our national game is, but whilst we have the best Premier League in the world we are never going to have the best national team in the world.
That is my biggest argument for our national team but the Premier League is at the top of everybody's sort of mindset at the moment with the amount of money it brings in and the amount of interest it creates. But, if you are going to have such an open league in terms of the amount of different cultures playing in that division then you are obviously going to stop your own homegrown players getting the experience that they need to perform at national level.
We either have one or the either, we either have a better national team and a slightly weaker Premier League, or we just go with what is happening. But, certainly the system for me and the way we approach international football has to change, and we have to just learn to keep the ball better than we have done.